Maybe Life Isn't as Bad as it Seems
by yenquest
Summary: Stuck in between two competitive towns... Great, and this is supposedly to be her "new life". Story centers around the main female farmer, Lillian.


_Helloooo everyone! This fanfiction is based off of Natsume's latest Harvest Moon game (for the Nintendo DS handheld console), the Tale of Two Towns. __As far as how this fanfiction will go (such as average chapter length, how many chapters there will be, and what will happen in the end of it all), I believe I'll just let my imagination do the talking. I got the basic concept of the storyline down, so, it's just a matter of having the time to flesh/write them out in some word document._

_I hope you all enjoy my take on Natsume's video game._

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 1: Entering the Two Towns<strong>

**Introduction**

"30 more mites before reaching ze destination," the middle-aged man announced, hoping to get a reply in return.

"..."

"…I dunno know what's going on in ze head of yours, little gal, but I reckon muh-ma had taught ya some manners, yah?" he asked with a bit of concern in his voice.

"…"

"…" The man gives up.

"…?"

"…This deadpan silence is giving me ze geebies."

"Sorry," apologizes a female voice.

**Lillian Receives her 1****st**** Request (Somewhat)**

After letting out a huge yawn from the long trip, the carriage driver notices a white pony sitting to a side of the road. He decided that the two of them could take a bit of a break since they've been at it for hours now. After slowing the carriage down to a complete stop, he got off the carriage and start stretching all around.

"Oui, me back..."

Now that the man's fully awake, he headed toward the white pony that seems to be missing its owner and start petting its head, "Not lost, are we? What bring ye here?" he asked curiously with a hint of humor.

The pony snorts and turned its head to a side. It took a few steps forward just far enough so the attached makeshift cart reaches the man. There happens to be a note stuck to the side of the small cart, so he decided to pull it off and read what's written on it. Apparently, the note is addressed to him:

"My dear friend,

The ride must have been very long and hectic for you. 4 long hours, and it's not even over yet! To show my appreciation for your help, I requested someone to attach a cart to this pony and send it to you. I am 100% positive that the young lady you're working with is capable of this, so please tell Lillian that she (herself) is to ride this pony all the way up to the top of the mountain where the cooking festivals usually take place. This way, you can get an early start on your way back and enjoy the rest of the day as soon as possible.

By the way, I've heard rumors about you often mistaking and/or misplacing people. Whichever the case may be, I'll describe Lillian's appearance to you. She is a young adult, no more than 20 years in age. She has medium length light brown hair along with misty violet colored eyes. From the discussion we had in the letters, the young lady seems to be a very bright individual. I hope this description is sufficient enough for you.

By the by, I can't wait to meet Lillian at the top of this mountain. I have a very special surprise for her! But please don't tell her this, for it will ruin it."

From Rutger,

Mayor of Bluebell."

"Bright individual, shimizul…" the man mutters to himself, "Little gal ez as scary as them ghouls ye told me about." He folds up the piece of paper and places it into one of his pockets, "…And ye betta give me more credit than that, ol' man. Been in ze business for 15 or so years of mah life." When he turns around, he noticed the young lady had already both her arms full from clearing out her luggage from his carriage.

"Ya need help with that?" without waiting for an answer, he quickly took them off her hands and placed it in the white pony's little cart.

Now that the weight is off Lillian's arms, Lillian took a few steps toward the little pony. She stopped about a yard away, keeping a good distance between the two of them.

"…I've read about them," she said quietly.

"Er… Them horses ye be talking about?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Then how 'bout them riding lessons?"

"…?"

"The mayor just gave me ze instructions to tell ya this, but I might as well just give ye this instead." He reached into his pockets and pulled out the folded piece of paper from earlier and handed it to Lillian.

"Ol' man might be messed up in ze head, me thinks," he explains while clearing out some earwax from his right ear, "Asking for an inexperienced city gal like ye to ride this here pony? And up to ze top of ze mountain too. He got mighty big impression of ya, ya know? So… Ya know how to ride them horses?"

When Lillian read through the note, she couldn't help but make a face toward Rutger's remark about the driver's credibility.

"Ya betta make no comment 'bout-."

Lillian raises both hands to indicate she's not thinking of doing such things.

"-No. I mean, yes. Wait, I meant no..." She thought about what she just said, and quickly pointed toward the white pony just to get back to the previous topic. "I don't know how to ride a horse."

"Why, ye city folks ARE hopeless. Well then! Ya betta listen up and remember what I'ma tell ya. I won't be repeating mah-self."

"Here's how these things work," the man went to the front of the pony and lifted the reign lying on the left side of the horse, "Ya hold t'is rope right here – I don't know what yo city folks calls it- but t'is for steering the fellas. Slight pull on both ends is all ya need. Pull left for left, right for right." He lets go of the reigns, and turn to face Lillian. "Ya never want to pull back too hard, it'll scare and distract 'em, but t'is might be useful if ye 'bout to run off a cliff – though I believe ye be smart enough not to do that." He then shrugged. "Even if ye did, ye likely fall off of ze thing and getting both of ya-self hurt. Oh, speakin' of which," he pointed toward to the side of the pony, "Never, and I'll be repeating myself on t'is ol' bit, never ever come up to ze pony from ze behind. This little fella can give a really mean kicking if ye do."

"Uh… Yes. Thank you very much."

"Mighty welcome! Ye got any questions for me?"

"No. I'm good."

"Then I be headin' back, yah? Even though ze mayor said I can have mah day off early, my job's still far from bein' over."

"Yes."

"Well then! Good day, little gal!"

"Good day."

**To the Mountain!**

This is the first time Lillian had ever been out on her own, so everything is new to her. When the man drove off with his carriage, Lillian watched the pony for a while. The pony un-expectantly looks back at her, causing her to quickly turn away. Lillian decides to bring out a bit of her own courage being uncomfortable will only cause her to do unnecessary things. "Easy now…" she said calmly not just to the pony, but to herself as well. Lillian slowly walks up to the side of the pony with an intention of mounting on it. "Easy…"She recites what she read from the internet back at home as she pets the side of the horse's neck. _Now, what was it?_ She thought to herself. _Left hand on reigns, left foot on the footing thing, swing right foot over, right arm balance, don't fall on saddle…_ Lillian ends up mounting onto the pony successfully without any trouble.

_Okay, to get the pony to walk…_ She slightly pulled the reigns back, hearts pounding loudly in her chest. The pony snorts and fidgets in place, causing Lillian to blink once. Curious, she tried adding pressure between the sides of the pony with her legs. The pony now seems to be displeased._ Odd... Wonder how this pony was taught to move._ Thinking for a while, Lillian furrows her eyebrows and tightens her lips. The idea in her head is embarrassing, but she decided to yell it out anyway, "…GO! Um-walk. Move." Humiliatingly, the pony looked back at her as if it's questioning her what she is trying to tell it to do. As a last resort, Lillian clicks her teeth, something that she always has a problem with doing back at home (afraid she'll get weird stares from her parents). Her first attempts with the clicking were quiet (too quiet for the pony to hear), but when she tried harder, she made the sound loud enough for the pony to start moving forward at its walking pace. _So weird… _Lillian sighed.

_Alright…_ Lillian thought to herself, somewhat relieved that all is going well so far. _To the top of the mountain, right?_ She looked up through the patches of trees above while letting the pony to continue walking up the single path leisurely. The two of them have just passed the dense forest's entrance, so it's kinda hard for her to see the top of the mountain if she doesn't keep checking every now and then. Thankfully, it's a good thing that she decided to come here at the start of Spring. If she had moved away from her home city any later, the forest might proves itself to be more dangerous with obscuring wild plants and such during summer and fall season. There's also the winter season too, where any accidents in the snow could mean death if she's not found lost/stuck overnight.

Finally having a confidence to do so, Lillian decides to shake the reigns up and down once, forgetting that first timers should give it a week before trying different speeds. The change in the pony's pace is quite… …shaky to her. She tries up righting her balance as the pony still moving, but she somehow accidentally manages to shake the reigns again, only to make the pony move faster. Quickly, she slightly pulls back on the reigns, making sure that her feet are still planted firm on both sides of the saddle like what she had read about. The pony starts to slow down a bit, but the speed it was going at was still too fast for Lillian to focus on what's going on in front of her. In a few seconds, the two of them are about to run over a fox that just appeared on the road.

"Eeek!" Lillian loses her footing and fell off to a side as the pony raises the two of its front feet into the air. One of her hands slammed onto the road as she tries to lessen the impact with hitting her head to the ground. The pony continued to move forward, toward an unknown cliff that it couldn't see. With one of Lillian's feet still stuck at the side of the saddle (semi-hooked), Lillian got dragged helplessly by the feet as the pony went off said cliff. When the both of them landed hard against the ground below, the female driver finally got separated from the saddle and instantly lost her consciousness.

* * *

><p><em>(Goodness gracious, I had a hard time to write out that driver's dialogue. Hopefully, I won't be doing that again for a long time, hehe.<em>

__I would like to let you all know that,____ even though I've only played up to Fall of first year, and I mostly have my farmer living in Konohana town, I'll try my best to make the Harvest Moon characters as believable as I can, especially Bluebell characters.___)_


End file.
